Everywhere I go I am reminded of how much Calvin is—of how we
are—different, “other.” In the cafe or grocer little children peel off
of their mothers’ sides to come and stare—front and center, bug-eyed,
sometimes sullenly—at my boy. As a kid I would’ve responded
sarcastically saying, take a picture, it lasts longer. But now, I simply gawk
back at them just as curiously as their little, serious faces peer at
Calvin. They’re probably thinking, what’s his problem? A kid once asked me that in the neurologist’s waiting room.
At twilight several weeks ago I stopped at the main intersection in the middle of town. Calvin was in the back seat pulling his usual shenanigans; biting his shoe, poking his eyes, happily flopping his arms to the music like a chicken. I noticed a driver idled in the SUV next to us ogling Calvin and looking vaguely repulsed. I gazed back at her for what seemed like five minutes before she noticed me and then, when I caught her glimpse, I smiled. She didn’t. Just stared back at me seemingly locked inside some paralytic, perplexed state of shock or disgust. Her handsome, oblivious teenage boy sat in the passenger seat with headphones stuck into his ears. Somehow, I felt sorry for her as she drove off.
Then there are those who see us and smile. Some watch us fondly from inside the grocery store, Michael pushing a cart while I do damage control holding Calvin’s hand or harness as he teeters drunkenly around displays of fruit and bottles of wine. They watch us bring our booty to the register where the clerk asks if Calvin might like a sticker and I graciously decline knowing he’d just try to eat it. They watch us move hand-in-hand through the wide automatic doors cheering Calvin along as he pigeon-toes across the parking lot cawing like some bird. They watch us load his screeching-drooly-spastic-sac-of-potatoes body into the car, buckle him up and kiss him. These precious few know something. I can see it in their compassionate eyes, hear it in their kind words. They’re the type of people you just want to embrace, or adopt and bring home, set them up in their own room with a warm blanket and a cup of tea. Often they’re old with leathery wrinkles and moist, red eyes. Some are young and vibrant, oozing sparkling energy like a dewy chrysanthemum or a sunbeam. All of them touch me with their kind gestures that often bring a familiar sting to my eyes and a thickening in my throat. I see the same in Michael’s teary eyes sometimes, and it makes me love him that much more.
I’ve always felt different from the rest of my own family in most ways. Michael is too. You know, the black sheep, the weirdos. I guess I’d say we dance to the beat of a different drum, and we like it that way. It feels good to see the world in somewhat unconventional ways, to see life through a sort of prism with all its refractory qualities, angles of light and color, shimmering, bending, dark at times. And now, with Calvin, life appears remarkably unlike anything we’ve experienced before. We’ve gone through another metamorphosis, see life through yet another filter that—if our child were healthy, normal—we might never have known. Each year living with Calvin strips back another layer, like some withered bark or faded, brittle skin, of what we thought we knew but didn’t. Though life is hard it’s always new and changing—we are changing—and it feels good, right. And in great part due to Calvin, we know and live “other” and embrace it.
There is a beautiful scene in the film Tree of Life, set in 1950s Texas, where a mother takes her two young sons to town. Crossing the street behind her the boys pass a swaggering drunken man who tips his hat to them. Laughing, the brothers mimic him cutting zigzags and bumping into each other. Another stumbling man approaches, his body queerly arched to one side, his arms drawn up to his chest like a squirrel. He drags one foot nearly on its ankle. The boys stare but do nothing, noting the peculiar but sad circumstance of his disability and perchance, in their minds, noting the sorrowful state of the drunken man. Lastly, the brothers skirt past a dirty, disheveled man in shackles. Their mother lifts a drink from her thermos to another's lips. One son asks in a whisper, perhaps to himself, can it happen to anyone?
Yes, it can. I know. It can happen to good people and bad people, to adults and children, to saints and heathens. We can all end up living the life of “other,” and at times we’ll be singled out, gawked at, mimicked and shamed, but by those who sadly, and for whatever reason, don’t have the sublime ability to look through life’s beautiful prism and see—embrace—the poignant beauty that is “other.”
Version originally published 01.25.12.
At twilight several weeks ago I stopped at the main intersection in the middle of town. Calvin was in the back seat pulling his usual shenanigans; biting his shoe, poking his eyes, happily flopping his arms to the music like a chicken. I noticed a driver idled in the SUV next to us ogling Calvin and looking vaguely repulsed. I gazed back at her for what seemed like five minutes before she noticed me and then, when I caught her glimpse, I smiled. She didn’t. Just stared back at me seemingly locked inside some paralytic, perplexed state of shock or disgust. Her handsome, oblivious teenage boy sat in the passenger seat with headphones stuck into his ears. Somehow, I felt sorry for her as she drove off.
Then there are those who see us and smile. Some watch us fondly from inside the grocery store, Michael pushing a cart while I do damage control holding Calvin’s hand or harness as he teeters drunkenly around displays of fruit and bottles of wine. They watch us bring our booty to the register where the clerk asks if Calvin might like a sticker and I graciously decline knowing he’d just try to eat it. They watch us move hand-in-hand through the wide automatic doors cheering Calvin along as he pigeon-toes across the parking lot cawing like some bird. They watch us load his screeching-drooly-spastic-sac-of-potatoes body into the car, buckle him up and kiss him. These precious few know something. I can see it in their compassionate eyes, hear it in their kind words. They’re the type of people you just want to embrace, or adopt and bring home, set them up in their own room with a warm blanket and a cup of tea. Often they’re old with leathery wrinkles and moist, red eyes. Some are young and vibrant, oozing sparkling energy like a dewy chrysanthemum or a sunbeam. All of them touch me with their kind gestures that often bring a familiar sting to my eyes and a thickening in my throat. I see the same in Michael’s teary eyes sometimes, and it makes me love him that much more.
I’ve always felt different from the rest of my own family in most ways. Michael is too. You know, the black sheep, the weirdos. I guess I’d say we dance to the beat of a different drum, and we like it that way. It feels good to see the world in somewhat unconventional ways, to see life through a sort of prism with all its refractory qualities, angles of light and color, shimmering, bending, dark at times. And now, with Calvin, life appears remarkably unlike anything we’ve experienced before. We’ve gone through another metamorphosis, see life through yet another filter that—if our child were healthy, normal—we might never have known. Each year living with Calvin strips back another layer, like some withered bark or faded, brittle skin, of what we thought we knew but didn’t. Though life is hard it’s always new and changing—we are changing—and it feels good, right. And in great part due to Calvin, we know and live “other” and embrace it.
There is a beautiful scene in the film Tree of Life, set in 1950s Texas, where a mother takes her two young sons to town. Crossing the street behind her the boys pass a swaggering drunken man who tips his hat to them. Laughing, the brothers mimic him cutting zigzags and bumping into each other. Another stumbling man approaches, his body queerly arched to one side, his arms drawn up to his chest like a squirrel. He drags one foot nearly on its ankle. The boys stare but do nothing, noting the peculiar but sad circumstance of his disability and perchance, in their minds, noting the sorrowful state of the drunken man. Lastly, the brothers skirt past a dirty, disheveled man in shackles. Their mother lifts a drink from her thermos to another's lips. One son asks in a whisper, perhaps to himself, can it happen to anyone?
Yes, it can. I know. It can happen to good people and bad people, to adults and children, to saints and heathens. We can all end up living the life of “other,” and at times we’ll be singled out, gawked at, mimicked and shamed, but by those who sadly, and for whatever reason, don’t have the sublime ability to look through life’s beautiful prism and see—embrace—the poignant beauty that is “other.”
Version originally published 01.25.12.
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| photo by Michael Kolster |
This is beautifully written, Christy. It makes me think of a conference I went to in NH years ago run by a woman named Kathie Snow, founder of Disability is Natural. Her passion is to for people with disabilities not to just be tolerated or accepted in society, but to be fully integrated and appreciated for who they are and what they can do.
ReplyDeleteThe most profound thing she said was: The question people should ask themselves is not IF they will ever have a disability, but WHEN. If you think about it, what is the difference between someone who is in a wheelchair as the result of cerebral palsy vs. old age, or the difference between someone whose brain is muddled by dementia vs. epilepsy? Most people will face life with some sort of disability at some point. If everyone realized that, perhaps they could learn to smile and not gawk at those who have a head start on their disability.